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Pakistan not eligible for similar n-deal: Burns

Washington: The former Under Secretary of State of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, one of the architects of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, feels Pakistan cannot expect a similar pact, a day after its Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani demanded such a deal from the U.S.

Mr. Burns also pressed for the speedy approval of the deal ahead of the IAEA taking up the India-specific safeguards pact for approval, saying it was “good” for both the countries besides helping strengthen the non-proliferation regime.

“India’s trust, its credibility, the fact that it has promised to create a state-of-the-art facility, monitored by the IAEA, to begin a new export control regime in place, because it has not proliferated the nuclear technology, we can’t say that about Pakistan.” said Mr. Burns when asked whether the U.S. would offer a nuclear deal with Pakistan on the lines of the Indo-U.S. deal during a debate on the nuclear agreement at the Brookings Institution.

After meeting U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Gilani demanded a nuclear deal similar to the one Washington has forged with New Delhi, assuring the nuclear proliferation network of its scientist, A. Q. Khan, was broken and would not be repeated.

“There should be no preferential [treatment], there should be no discrimination. And if they want to give civilian nuclear status to India, we would also expect the same for Pakistan too,” said Mr. Gilani at a gathering under the aegis of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute.

On the Indo-U.S. pact, Mr. Burns, who was the U.S. pointsman for the deal, said: “My conviction is that this deal strengthens the non-proliferation regime... it makes India a stakeholder. I am for this agreement because it is good for both countries.... The civilian nuclear deal is a symbolic centre piece of the bilateral relations.”

He also gave a Teheran link to the nuclear deal when he said a swift approval by the IAEA, NSG and the U.S. Congress would send a strong message to countries like Iran “to play by the rules” and for strengthening the non-proliferation regime. “If you play by the rules.... there will be benefits,” he reminded Tehran.

Mr. Burns, who stepped down in March and was appointed as a special envoy to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the deal, also stressed the U.S. has in place “the right measures to protect” its interests by retaining the right to terminate the agreement. He asserted the 123 Agreement is “absolutely’ consistent with the Hyde Act. — PTI

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